Calm
by Pour the Champagne
Summary: Tonks is off on her first mission as an auror. Oneshot. ;)


**AN:** So I chose two people at random to do a oneshot about, and ended up with Tonks and Jasper. Hope y'all enjoy!

* * *

Tonks was excited. And nervous. After years and years of hard work, she'd finally acheived her biggest goal; becoming an auror. And this would be her first solo mission. She knew it wasn't a very complicated or important mission, or even all that interesting. All the same, her heart was pumping quite a bit faster than normal. All she had to do was get on the plane to Fairbanks, Alaska, go to the designated meeting place, get the package, whatever it was, from the contact, and then she'd be off again. No way she could screw this up.

At five a.m. the next morning she got up, dressing in inconspicuous muggle clothes, a pair of jeans and a black sabbath T shirt she'd borrowed from a muggle born friend, who had been absolutely horrified at the muggle clothes the auror's office had given her to wear (a pair of overalls, a very baggy hawaiian shirt, and a purple cardigan).

The drive to the airport went quickly, and she got through security without any trouble, though she did think it was weird that they wanted her to remove her shoes. She was one of the first on the plane as the auror office had provided enough muggle money for the trip that she could buy a first class ticket, and she soon fell asleep.

After landing, she had a few hours before the drop off, so she found a nice little cafe about a block from the meeting place and ordered herself a–what did the muggles call it again? Esprexo? Expresso? They were so small that she ordered herself four more.

...

She had thought that sitting down and having a warm drink would calm her down a bit before the drop off, but it seemed that the longer she sat and the more expresso stuff she drank, the more agitated she got. When it was about half an hour before she would need to leave the quiet little cafe, she was so nervous and restless that her hands were shaking, and this combined with her clumsiness meant that she had broken two cups. The coffee shop's owner had seemed like he wanted to kick her out, and she'd ended up having to lightly confundus him.

While she was lost in her thoughts, someone silently slid into the seat across from her. Despite how the auror training had helped her to hone her senses, she didn't notice another person was there until they spoke.

"Are you alright?" asked a velvet voice with a barely detectable southern drawl.

She looked up, startled. Across from her sat easily the palest person she'd ever seen. He had curly dirty blond hair that fell to the bottom of his earlobe, and his eyes were a sort of liquidy gold color. As a metamorphagus, she saw faces differently than most people. Through her life she'd had to put a lot more thought into how cheekbones were structured and the way each facial feature affected the others, and so she couldn't help but appreciate how perfectly this guy's face was balanced.

Wait, he'd asked her a question. "Oh um y-yeah," Tonks stammered. "Yeah I'm fine. Bit nervous, but fine."

The stranger still looked slightly concerned. She supposed she must look pretty similarly to how she felt, and her emotions were all over the place.

"So what's got you all riled up?" He asked.

She opened her mouth to deflect his question, and then closed it again. Why not tell him? she wondered to herself. She debated for a moment before a feeling of trust washed through her, pushing her over the edge. "Today's my first day on the job. In about half an hour, I'll have to head out and complete this... assignment. It isn't difficult or dangerous, but I'm just really worried I'm going to mess it up."

The stranger nodded in understanding, and then they sat there in silence for a few seconds. "Oh," said the stranger, "I seem to have forgotten my manners. I'm Jasper Whitlock." He offered his hand for her to shake.

"Tonks," she replied. When she took his hand, she felt this wave of calm crash over her, and she instantly relaxed.

For the next half hour they chatted. She found him extremely entertaining to talk to. Then she glanced down at her watch. "Oh, time for me to head off. Nice meeting you, Jasper."

He nodded deeply. "Same to you."

The job went off without any difficulties, and Tonks was the most cool and collected she'd ever been. Even years later, if she needed to be particularly calm for an assignment, she'd pull back the memory of that day, and that feeling she'd had but could never get quite the same again.


End file.
